It's Not Just Diesel Engines That Volkswagen's Cleaning Up Now

14.9K

Views

Don't worry, this power plant isn't linked to cheating the emissions test procedure.

It's pretty common knowledge now that Volkswagen's busy cleaning up its diesel engines, in particular, the 11 million or so VW Group cars that had the infamous emissions test defeat device embedded somewhere in the ECUs. What perhaps isn't as widely known, though, is that VW is also ready to roll out measures that will cut back on the particulate emissions of its gasoline-powered cars. Before you fret, though, this isn't the result of Volkswagen being caught out with another set of engine cleanliness shenanigans.

In fact, the scheme itself is a pretty interesting one. For sure, putting the announcement in a press release that'll be gobbled up and regurgitated by a myriad of motoring media newsrooms across the world is a canny bit of post-Dieselgate damage limitation. But it's still interesting to see Volkswagen's got some pretty ambitious plans to reduce the nastier stuff that's emitted from gasoline engines. How, you may ask? By the widespread adoption of a new type of gasoline particulate filter (also known as a "GPF") that, according to Volkswagen, will have the potential to reduce said noxious internal combustion engine outputs by up to 90%. Quite impressive, if we do say so.

Considering the GPF adoption scheme will be rolled out across the Volkswagen Group's entire turbo-petrol range, it's going to take a pretty long time before all the conglomerate's cars will be fitted with this tech. The whole process will commence properly in June next year with the Volkswagen Tiguan's 1.4-liter TSI and the Audi A5's 2.0-liter TFSI engines, with the GPF program set to conclude sometime in 2022. As we said, a pretty ambitious scheme that's going to take a rather long time to see all the way through, but certainly one that we wholeheartedly support. On top of being a positive publicity boost for VW, anything that keeps gasoline internal combustion viable for longer gets CarBuzz's seal of approval.